Request for Profile evaluation- India M/30

Question

Hi,

I am vikas Sharma, I work for India's largest steel Manufacturing company Steel Authority of India Ltd (A PSU)- currently working as Asst. Mgr Projects ( work Ex 3 yrs in current capacity + 2.5 Years in shop floor- Blast Furnace, SMS etc.) Contributions: 1. Implemented new design for maintenance which increased the life of ladle by 40%, 2. Presented a technical paper on same in International conf., 3. Filed for patent that will be granted this year. 4. Responsible for initiating projects and also monitoring their implementation ( currently monitoring, with my team, projects worth 625 Mn $) 4. On shop floor lead a team of 9 Engineers and 18 Diploma engineers.

2. Gmat Score- 720 (Q- 50, V-36, IR-4, AWA-4.5)
3. B.Tech- Ceramic Engg.- 2008, from-IIT-BHU, CGPA 7.43/10
4. College posts- Youngest Captain of Athletics Team, represented University in zonal Football tournament, awarded the highest student award in college, Best athlete for all consecutive 4 years. Community Service: In college- Member of Student run NGO Kashi Utkarsh- organised Blood donation camps, Sanitation drives in slum areas, taught underprivileged children, raised money for 2004 Tsunami Victims. After college: Member of Durgapur Hostel Athletics club- organised Blood donation camps, Eye camps for underprivileged, carried out public awareness drives, Founded Advaya Classes- an Institute to teach underprivileged children for IIT entrance exams, A volunteer of Teach India since last september.
5. Target Programs: Booth, Kellogg, darden, Ross, Duke, Cornell, Kenan flagler; in that order.
6. Plan to apply this summer.
7. Post MBA goal: Short term goal: After filling the relevant skill gaps (from B-school) joining tier one not for profit Institutions viz. WB, ADB, UNDP, UNFCCC in strategy position ( evaluation and implementation of projects). 
Long term goal: Start my own social enterprise to change, no matter how meagerly, lives of people by providing solution to social problems such as sanitation, education, health etc, with special focus to India and south Asia.

I will also appreciate if you suggest any changes in my target schools, as I am pretty confused.

Thanks,
Vikas.

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hey Vikas,

Thanks for posting! First off, let's start with your goals. Drop the social work. Entirely. Not the right goals for you. You'll be thrown right into the ding pile for four reasons. One, you have no experience in that field - no proven record. Secondly, your long term goals are entirely too vague and ambiguous. You have no specifics here. Thirdly, you have no entrepreneurial experience so starting your own social enterprise doesn't instill a lot of confidence. Lastly, most not for profits won't hire you as an international. Even if they did, they wouldn't pay very well. So the chances of a school wanting you to go down that path as an international alum are low. That wasn't meant to be harsh but let's just call a spade a spade - think of other goals.

From a school perspective, Booth and Kellogg are significant stretches and Darden, Duke, and Ross are stretches too. UNC and Johnson are more realistic for your profile. That said, you'll need to rethink your school selection in light of new goals too.

I hope that helps!

Bhavik

viking2210 · Answer

Hi Bhavik,

I like your direct approach of evaluation. Still I would rather ask you to kindly give me some reasons for the stretch schools you mentioned above. Why Kellogg, Booth, Ross, Duke and Darden are stretches for me? is it my score? (It is above the avg. scores for all sans Booth.), My GPA? ( It is quite good w.r.t what is granted in the premiere institutes in India such as IIT BHU), I come from a manufacturing sector, which is minority in any B-School and therefore I would be a diversity candidate. Is it my Leadership positions in college or at my job ( where I have lead quite a few teams that have brought in new technology in shop floors and improved efficiency. you said I don't have any entrepreneurial experience, true verbatim, but not in essence I have always invested myself in new enterprise through innovations and taken initiatives in a rather morbid PSU- My presentation of paper in international conf. and acceptance of Patent application (while working on shop floor in extenuating condition of a steel manufacturing unit, which I think you know less about). I shall really be obliged if you enlighten me on above facts and evaluate my profile in the light of above.

Please don't go on goal as I totally accept your reason and evaluation of it.

Thanks,
VK

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hey Vikas,

You're very welcome! To your questions:

1) Your GMAT is not above the average for you APPLICANT POOL - the overall median for the school doesn't matter. As an Indian, at those schools, you're batting below the number that counts

2) Your GPA is definitely good, but it isn't great. It's solid though!

3) You're not defining "diversity" correctly and you're overestimating its impact on your profile. Coming from Manufacturing is good in that it isn't IT, but that doesn't matter. If a school wants different functions represented, they can get a Manufacturing applicant from the US, Canada, Europe, or anywhere else in Asia. There are other Manufacturing applicants in India too.

4) Overall, your involvement is light. And yes, you have some innovative things you've implemented but having a drive doesn't make you an entrepreneur. You did it within a structure. Within a construct. Those are good experiences but not for your particular story you're trying to sell here

Hope that helps!

Bhavik

viking2210 · Answer

Hi again,

I don't get your point Bhavik, I think you are a bit confused in your assessment ( your points 1 and 3 above).

1.When you explain reason for my score being not so impressive you pit me against the applicant pool from India, in which according to you I bat under the numbers that count, whereas while reducing the impact of diversity (in mfg.) you pit me against the applicant pool from US, Canada or other Asian countries.

2. In your point number 2, you are just making a general statement and showing rather shallow assessment of GPA. You say it is solid though, but not very good- This I could not comprehend. If I convert my GPA into 4.0 scale through the bell curve it comes around 3.6+, does this qualify for being very good?, I think so!

3. In your point 4 above you missed the point that I did the innovation in a PSU that are notorious for being rather moribund as far as innovation is considered and you face immense resistance at every level. You discount this work and others as rather shallow. You further say that having a drive only does not make one an entrepreneur, well I think this is opposite to what the majority of the schools endorse- having drive is rather rare. Anyways, this was a part of my goal which I already conceded to your evaluation in my previous post.

I sincerely believe that you are not giving due diligence to what you are writing. I understand the fact that you must be very busy as you must be receiving heaps of evaluation and other requests. I also understand that you have not started your consultancy services for charity purpose and therefore you can not devote so much time to every request that too free. but at the same time it is also expected of you that you give an honest, reasoned and convincing consultancy because my profile might be one of hundred thousands you receive but for me it is the only one and I have to make best use of it.

I hope you understand and share my concern. waiting for your reply!

Thanks,

VK

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hi Vikas, What I feel might be causing the confusion is that some of what I am saying to you doesn't quite align with what you were hoping for me to say. But let me go through this again point by point. Hopefully that'll help clear some of your concerns up. 1) There was no confusion here. For your score, of course you're compared against your applicant pool. My point in introducing the American or European or broader Asian pools for industry was to show you that your particular industry/function is not unique. While they do value intra-pool diversity across numerous factors, that is not necessarily their primary concern. Your point hinges upon the assumption that they must accept a similar distribution of professions from every pool and that simply isn't the case. 2) Something can be good and not great all the time. Take, for example, my dinner last night

. It was good, but it wasn't great! I'm not the best of chefs. And no, my assessment of "good not great" does not mean it was a shallow assessment. A 7.43 out of an IIT is solid, yes, it is good. It is not, however, great. I just had a free consultation with a class topper with an 8.5. That, on the other hand, is a great GPA. On the flip side, you don't have a <7.0 GPA either which would be bad. So, as you can see - good, not great. 3) Your innovation experiences are important to your profile and you will need to focus on them in order to find your "cornerstone" experiences for your profile. Innovation within a company is always difficult and it's great that you were able to accomplish these things while facing push back. Now, that said, understand the difference between "drive" and "entrepreneurial". These initiatives absolutely show drive. They do not, in my opinion, show entrepreneurial fortitude. So hopefully you can see that my prior assessment was not meant to be cursory nor shallow. We do receive many of these requests but we love this forum and strive to provide an honest assessment to everyone that comes to us. Hopefully my response has cleared up some of our misunderstandings. After all - it's super difficult to communicate effectively on a forum!

If you still have questions, feel free to post 'em!

Request for Profile evaluation- India M/30

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